Gaming machines, such as slot machines, fruit machines, or poker machines, have in recent years become one of the more popular, exciting, and sophisticated wagering activities available at casinos and other gambling locations. At the same time, gaming machines have also become a source of greater revenue for gaming establishments. Thus, competition between manufacturers of gaming machines has intensified as competitors vie for business from gaming establishments.
A large gaming casino typically employs thousands of gaming machines that can be operated simultaneously. These gaming machines can be used to simultaneously play multiple games using multiple rewards. A gaming system providing entertaining and enticing features for players would be highly desirable to attract both new and returning players to a gaming establishment. Additionally, a gaming system that allows customization and dynamic modification by an operator would be highly desirable to provide new features to customers. Current gaming machines are difficult to reconfigure and offer the same game to multiple users at multiple gaming establishments. Certain games may become old, unattractive or simply unpopular to players and need updating or replacing.
At certain times, game play in casinos is historically slow, and, at certain times, game play in casinos is historically busy. However, even at busy times, a level of excitement in a casino may not be as high as it could be. Certain embodiments of the present invention addresses problems presented by current casino game play and provide one or more solutions.
One method used to provide increased excitement in a casino is a progressive jackpot system wherein the progressive prize is shared among eligible players. Players become eligible by placing a maximum bet at a gaming machine and initiating play at the gaming machine within a certain time before the progressive jackpot is won. The amount of a player's bet and the time interval between a player's bet and the award of the jackpot is used to determine a player's eligibility to share in the progressive prize. U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,700 is an example of such a prior art shared progressive jackpot system.
Additionally, some casinos offer in their live Poker rooms a “Bad Beat” jackpot that may be paid to multiple casino patrons when a “Bad Beat” occurs. A “Bad Beat” is defined as one player with a qualifying poker hand losing to another player with a better hand that is also qualifying. Generally, when a bad beat occurs at a casino poker room, anyone currently playing either at that table or at that casino may share in at least a portion of the “Bad Beat” jackpot. Other options to entertain casino patrons include a bonus prize awarded when a threshold value is accumulated in the progressive bonus pool.